Give or Take

Directed by Paul Riccio, Give or Take follows Jamie Effros’ Martin as he returns to his childhood home in the wake of his father’s death and almost immediately begins butting heads with his dad’s live-in boyfriend (Norbert Leo Butz’s Ted). Filmmaker Riccio, working from a script written with Effros, delivers a slow-moving yet sporadically compelling drama that benefits substantially from its stirring performances, as Effros and especially Butz elevate the lackadaisical proceedings on an ongoing basis with their sympathetic, down-to-earth efforts (and it doesn’t hurt, certainly, that the picture contains top-notch work from a talented assortment of periphery players). It’s clear, however, that the familiarity of the narrative prevents Give or Take from becoming as consistently engrossing as Riccio has obviously intended, with the movie’s hit-and-miss atmosphere compounded by an often palpably overlong running time (ie the film, which runs about 103 minutes, should’ve topped out at an hour and a half, ultimately). There’s nevertheless little doubt that Give or Take grows more and more agreeable as it unfolds – it doesn’t hurt, certainly, that Riccio has peppered the film with several stand-out sequences (eg Martin and Ted bond over memories of the deceased) – which does, in the end, cement its place as a hit-and-miss drama that’s not entirely without its charms.

**1/2 out of ****